Saturday, March 23, 2019

Stump Day / Holiday Spellcial (Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 3 Episode 14) - 'Toon Reviews 27


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Stump Day

Usually in shows, there’s nothing wrong with Christmas episodes.  However, they can throw off the pace when the featured series is deep into its plot.  That’s why it’s a bit of an issue to get a Christmas episode now, but it’s still best to be open-minded going in.  To me though, it’s not exactly the best Christmas work out there. 
In actuality, the holiday is called Stump Day which has similar amenities to those of Christmas from decorations and snowy weather.  Even so, Stump Day feels more like its own holiday than Mewni’s version of Christmas.  This is especially true for its background of early Mewman settlers who couldn’t stand each other but bonded as they gathered around a stump during a blizzard.  That’s pretty far off from Christmas’ origins, but maybe that’s the point.  Rather than set a Mewni holiday up to just be Christmas with a different name, it makes more sense to have some things set it apart from its real world counterpart. 
While many think the story of honoring the stump is just a simple little kid’s story, no one holds it in higher regard than Star. This is all fine at first, but later events make it an issue.  At night, Star is called down to the grand hall.  There, she’s shocked to find that Marco and her closest friends have thrown her a birthday party.  Star does not approve of all her friends’ thoughtful festivities because she believes that celebrating her birthday on Stump Day will dishonor and anger the stump.  This direction is very mixed.  I see this as an interesting commentary for the challenges of celebrating holidays when someone’s birthday lands on one.  That said, there are several issues to the execution.  First, the series premiere had Star get her wand on her birthday, and there were no signs on Mewni or Earth that it was around Stump Day or Christmas.  Maybe Star’s birthday is usually celebrated long after Stump Day, but why the long wait?  Surely there’s nothing wrong with celebrating when Stump Day’s over. 
Also, Star’s paranoia over the stump feels obsessive.  It feels like she’s forcing her beliefs on others which is never OK.  I also find it unpleasing that for the conflict to work, many of the party guests get into petty fights.  Some derail their character development like Tom getting mad when told he’s been inconsiderate of Star, or Tad still not moving out of Kelly’s head.  Others are just their usual unlikable selves like when Pony Head starts complaining.  Star chalks this arguing up to angering the stump which is tearing them apart.  Is that supposed to imply that honoring the stump means being happy all the time?  That can’t be healthy. 
Eventually, the stump does get mad and attacks everyone.  It’s hard to tell if it’s because of the party and arguing since the attack happens after Janna puts the stump in the fire.  There’s no definitive proof that Star’s paranoia over the stump was justified.  For all the issues, the payoff where everyone apologizes and declares their love for each other is very nice.  It’s still problematic that the stump only stops attacking because Stump Day ends at that moment.  Thankfully, the good moments were genuine with everyone feeling closer and Star showing appreciation for her own party.  That’s the best defining moment of the Christmas/Stump Day spirit of the entire episode. 
Unlike most Christmas episodes I’ve covered, this is held back by unpleasant moments, possibilities of continuity errors, and disrupting the pace of the big plot going on.  Still, it can be nice and wholesome to a degree if you’re in the right mood, even if there’s better holiday material out there.
B-
Holiday Spellcial
I am not a fan of the first appearance of the personifications of the spells in Star’s wand.  It’s an imaginative concept for sure, but it does not bring any interesting story ideas or characterizations and feels like a big waste of time.  This episode is another starring role for these guys highlighting what they do during Stump Day, and it continues to beg the question why this topic is even explored. 
All the problems from the first time they do this are on full display.  The biggest one is that this is the type of thing that should be explored in a short scene or joke, not an entire episode.  The things the spells get up to are not interesting or relevant to anything important to the story.  The only thing setting it apart from last time is that one of Eclipsa’s spells, the Seeing Eye, is among them.  Even then, this doesn’t explain why there has to be a whole episode about these spells personified.  They’re not even used for anything important like a battle.  It’s just the Spider with a Top Hat working hard to set up a Stump Day party for everyone which on the whole plays out like a typical office Christmas party. 
Basically, we’re viewing these spells when they’re at their least enjoyable.  I put a huge emphasis on least enjoyable because none of them seem very likable.  Remember how they constantly hammered in Spider being better at comedy than fighting but were still considerate of his feelings?  Well, all that changes when they completely ostracize the Seeing Eye from being anywhere near them.  It doesn’t even make sense that they would be this mean.  The Seeing Eye spell has been used quite a few times to successful effect, and ever since Star unlocked it, it stayed in possession.  You’d think the other spells would be used to it being around.  Maybe it makes sense that they’d be weirded out by the Seeing Eye constantly staring at them, but making it a total social outcast because of that is going too far. 
They eventually understand that Spider sees friendly merit in Seeing Eye and let him come to the party.  When Seeing Eye does come, even he proves unsympathetic.  While mingling among the spells, he shows them all doing embarrassing things which gets everyone mad and antagonistic against each other which once more is not pleasant at all.  It has a reason through playing a memory of Marco saying it’s always best to tell the truth. Even with that, shouldn’t there have been some guidelines set that it’s not the time to reveal these things?  Spider continues to vouch for the Seeing Eye and make peace between spells once more.  It seems like he’s about to do that by reminding everyone that the Eye is just trying to fit in.  Then the Seeing Eye ruins things for Spider too by playing a moment of Spider berating everyone.  While the spells deserve this for their behavior, it is not cool that the Seeing Eye would just make more trouble for the one spell who stood up for him. 
Finally, it plays a montage of all the nice moments between the spells which finally gets them all to forgive each other and have a good party.  It’s a nice ending for sure, but why did play that bad moment of Spider in the first place?  If the Seeing Eye could show that nice montage, nothing was stopping him from doing it earlier.  Is he that sadistic that he had to add one sadistic moment before finally making things peaceful again?  It just goes to show that these episodes inside the wand were really not a good idea.  They have their nice moments, but story and character issues and lack of substance show some creative concepts are best left unexplored.
D
The Ranking
  1. Moon the Undaunted
  2. Deep Dive
  3. Stranger Danger
  4. Sweet Dreams
  5. Return to Mewni
  6. Rest in Pudding
  7. Night Life
  8. Demoncism
  9. Toffee
  10. Monster Bash
  11. Club Snubbed
  12. Puddle Defender
  13. Sophomore Slump
  14. Starfari
  15. Lint Catcher
  16. Princess Turdina
  17. Scent of a Hoodie
  18. King Ludo
  19. Marco and the King
  20. Death Peck
  21. Book Be Gone
  22. Stump Day
  23. Trial by Squire
  24. Lava Lake Beach
  25. Holiday Spellcial
  26. Ponymonium
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the plot gets back on track.  While Star is roped into a bogbeast hunt, Moon and Eclipsa make for an enjoyable team-up as they look for the truth about Eclipsa's daughter.
If you would like to check out other Star vs the Forces of Evil reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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